page_title: Train of Tomorrow
section_title: Genesis and design
hierarchical_section_title: Train of Tomorrow / Genesis and design
caption_attribution_description: The monument erected to commemorate construction of the first dome car. The monument originally stood in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado; it is seen here in its current location at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.
context_page_description: The Train of Tomorrow was an American demonstrator train built as a collaboration between General Motors and Pullman-Standard between 1945 and 1947. It was the first new train to consist entirely of dome cars, which were the brainchild of GM vice president and Electro-Motive Division general manager Cyrus Osborn, who conceived the idea while riding in either an F-unit or a caboose in the Rocky Mountains in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado. After GM built a 45-foot scale model of the train for $101,772 and displayed it to 350 officials from 55 different Class I railroads in 1945, the Train of Tomorrow was built by Pullman-Standard between October 1946 and May 1947.
  The train consisted of four cars: a chair car, a dining car, a sleeping car, and a lounge-observation car, all featuring "Astra-Domes". It was pulled by a largely stock EMD E7A. Its dining car, Sky View, was the first dome diner to be built and the first diner of any kind with an all-electric kitchen. The train was constructed with low-alloy, high-tensile steel and Thermopane glass for its domes and windows.
context_section_description: According to multiple sources, the Train of Tomorrow's dome cars were the brainchild of GM vice president and EMD general manager Cyrus Osborn, who conceived the idea while riding in an F-unit in the Rocky Mountains in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado. According to Osborn himself, however, it was actually a similar ride in the "cupola of the caboose that gave me the idea." After Osborn was reassured by EMD engineers that a dome car that would not be more limited in height clearance than a caboose could be built, he turned his idea over to Harley Earl and the General Motors (GM) Styling Section in Detroit. The Styling Section then collected feedback on contemporary passenger car design from its designers and railroad passengers before committing to a design process anticipated by Earl to take 90 days and cost US$25,000, which resulted in 1,500 sketches and 100 final design ideas.
  After the final design ideas were derived from the sketches, GM's Styling Section began building a 45-foot (13.72 m) scale model of a four-car train (each car was 10 feet (3.05 m) long), built of metal, plastic, and wood and featuring 175 painted clay figures of people and even tiny details such as dinner knives and cigarette packs. The dining car alone featured 1,100 objects. After being completed, the model was unveiled in a former Cadillac showroom in Oak Park, Illinois, where it was displayed with a custom-built Western mountain scene backdrop illuminated with stage lighting. From February 21 to June 23, 1945, the model was shown to 350 officials from 55 different Class I railroads, most notably Ralph Budd of the Burlington, who was so moved by the display that he almost immediately ordered the passenger car Silver Alchemy (No. 4714) be converted into a dome and renamed Silver Dome.
  By November 1945, the model had cost $101,772, more than four times its budget, but before the Train of Tomorrow made its debut, 49 dome cars were on loan with the Budd Company alone. GM allowed any carbuilder to freely use its designs without licenses or royalties, as it "saw the program not only as a research project to stimulate interest in new car design and construction but also as a way to encourage railroads to order new cars with GM railroad-related products on-board." After being revised, the model was repeatedly displayed at auto shows and other GM exhibitions through 1955, including at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and at Motorama, before last being seen in Cincinnati in 1955 at a ceremony honoring Osborn.
caption: The Glenwood Canyon dome car monument after being moved to the Colorado Railroad Museum
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